Inking means



. N 0 Drawing.

or felt covered and ink soaked l atented Sept. l, 193i UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE TATSUO WAKABAYASHI, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

INKING MEANS The present invention aims to provide a novel and improvedcomposition of mattern the nature of a plastic mass for use as theWorking-portion of an inking or stamp pad,

on a supporting surface, andthen employed,

for instance, exactly as in the familiar cloth pad proper of a so-calledstamp pad. 7

An important object of the invention, then, in a more limited aspect ofthe latter, is to provide a novel and improved pad proper, particularlyuseful in connection with a container of the familiar fiat, tray-like,hingedcover type, to fill or substantially fill such container or anappointed compartment therein; such containers, as is well known, he-

ing commonly used as carriers for stamp pads proper, and hence beinggenerally called stamp pads.

A broad object of the invention is to employ an indiscriminately butsubstantially uniformly intermingled mass of fibrous material, andpreferably such a mass including a plurality of fibres of dissimilarorigin, whereby a quasi-felted, that is, an enduringly plastic and atthe sametime an enduringly elastic mass may be provided once there hasbeen incorporated therein, in addition to said fibrous material ormaterials to act as the base, various binding and inking substances ormaterials intermingled with each other and with the base in such manneras to be uniformly dispersed or distributed between and within thefibres of the'base; all to result in the provision of a new and valuablecomposition of matter which will keep indefinitely, which may be appliedplastically to a flat support or compressed within a shallow or othersuitable container, which will then adhere to such support or container,which will have a continuing elasticity, which thereafter and for a verylong time Application filed July 24, 1929. Serial No. 380,759.

will not dry up, or require replenishment'of the inking substance ormaterial, or become permanently distortedunder repeated forcileapplications thereto of a stamp orother printing instrumentality to beinked thereby preparatory to a printing operation of suchinstrumentality, and which, when desired,

may without difficulty be removed from the base or tray supporting orconfining the same and hence may readily be transferredto another baseortray or other suitable support or location. g

These and various otherrobjects and advantages of the invention willbecome ap-& parent hereinafter or will be specificallyreferred to asthis spe'cificationfproceeds.

Referring now in detail to the new composition of material, itsingredients and mode of manufacture:

I have discovered that sponge fibre,- and particularly vegetablespongefibre produced preferably from'vegetable sponges as belowexplained, especially when mixed with moxa so that an indiscriminate andsubstantially uniform intermingling of the dissimilar, sponge and moxafibres results, provides a permanently inherently elastic baseof anideal character to assist in attaining the variousobjects of theinvention as aforesaid, and also to facilitate the provision of an inkpad proper at exceedingly low cost;

The sponge fibre employed with the moxa is desirably produced by combingthe sponges used, as by anyof the well known ginning or combing machinesor devices, in such manner that small fibres are obtained. These fibresare preferably very small, even as compared in maximum dimension to thelength of the familiar radially extended filamentous elements of thecommon swamp cattail,'which filamentous elements the moxa greatlyresembles. True moxa, as is well known, is a soft, downy substanceprepared in China and J apanfrom the young leaves of Artevm'sz'a moxa,"and this is the moxa I preferably employ, as the invention is at presentunderstood.

In combination with the fibrous base, I employ a combination ofliquidsone at least of which is oleaginous in character, thelatterbeingrpreferalily a drying vegetable oil; ideal results having beenobtained so far with amoora oil. 2

In combination with the fibrous base and the oil, binder just referredto, I further i Sponge fibre" 100 lbs. Alcohol lbs.

Glycerin lbs.

011 1 lb. Dye l 1 lb. Moxal; 10 lbs.

These ingredients, in the preferred embodiment of the invention arehandled as fol lows:' The dye or dyes are dissolved in the glycerin andoil, the alcohol isthoroughly mixed in, and the resulting liquid is"uniformly or substantially uniformly distrib-.

uted over the surfaces and within the interstices and pores of thesponge fibre and nioX-a, in anysuitable way, as by continued agitationof the fibres and liquid ingredients in y suitable, vat or the like; thedissimilar fibres having previeusly been given a similar agitation,tossing or tumbling treatment to in tnnately commmgle and substantiallyunis formly distribute the same. NVhere thefibres Qhave beenintermingled previously as last described, the vat agitation referred tomay be reduced; and in some cases, where such preparatoryfibre-intermingling is suclras to result in anexceptionally uniformdistriburtion of the dissimilar fibres, the previously mixed liquidingredients may be chiefly or perhaps entirely added by way of a meresoaking operation.

The finalresult is a plastic mass or paste, ready to be spread within orupon a suitable support, aswithin a shallmv tray, and there compressed.The degree of compression employed, applied in any suitable way, is suchas to form a cake or layer of the desired thick- 5 ncss, and havingaboutthesame cushion characteristic as an. ordinary cloth covered stamppad proper, in fully live, or new, condition.

The degree of 'compression to be employed willqulck-y become ascertainedin practice 1*" and be thereafter fanuliar in carrying out themanufactureof the new compositionof matter; it being pointed out thatthe plastic mass is compressed to just short of the point where theliquidcontents begin to exudenowes In use, the new stamp pad proper, orequivalent, gives rather readily under the application of atype-carrying stamp or the like, the type or equivalents squeezingagainst the contacted and underlying fibres to re- 7 ceive the correctcoating of dye or ink; and the inherent elasticity of the stamp padprop} er, or equivalent, is such that the same restores itself to,original form and surface height after each inking service. 7

The new composition of matter is inexpen- V sive to manufacture;convenient to fabricate and shape or mount as above explained; and, asalso already brought out, is adapted to attain all the objects andadvantages'of the invention hereinbefore recited, including also theavoidance of any chance of its having the useful life of a stamp padproper or the like made therefrom impaired by wear and tear on acovering element of cloth, felt or the like, 85 since there is no suchcovering element pre ent. \Vhat I claim as new, andgdesire to secure byLetters Patent, is:

A- composition of matter ferming an ink- 9. ing pad and resulting frommixing together the following: spon e fibre, one hundred pounds; moxafibre, ten pounds; alcohol, ten pounds; glycerin, fifty pounds; oil, onepound; and dye, one pound.

in testimony whereof I- hereby {till my signature. I TATSUO lVAKABAYA SHT.

